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I guess they really started during World War II. Before that you couldn't consider them very seriously because there were no airplanes, and there was no way of sending a message up to something like twenty thousand miles away and down again and so if you were dealing with the news you automatically were two weeks late.

During the war when so many American men and some women were abroad they were starved for home news. And I think it was Pierrie Prentice was the one who devised the idea of the Time Pony. Which was a small edition of Time without advertising. And somewhat abbreviated. He got the agreement of the military to ship it to all the outposts by the fastest methods possible. And it was enormously successful because other than listening to a radio there really wasn't any way that the G.I. could know what was going on in the world, particularly what was going on at home.

Then Life started its pony edition with no advertising in it, light weight paper. These were both on very light weight paper. They practically would fall apart in your hands. And by the way, the main complaint was, “We'd like to see the advertising.” Later on it was something we could use all the time. But maybe to those who decry advertising, let me tell you, that World War II experience taught us that people liked the advertising. They want to see the products. And of course, I suppose the further they are from the products and the less available they are to them, the more they like to see the advertising. But these were immensely successful. And, of course, the other aspect of the War was that it brought the U.S. to the world, the U.S. went to the world and the U.S. became the